Fall Girl

Chapter 9

"They were so good tonight!" Alex exclaimed as she, Nicky, Lorna, and Piper all spilled out of the venue with the rest of the concert crowd. The other three girls enthusiastically agreed. Alex threw an arm around Nicky's shoulders as they walked and continued, "I mean, the way Stella held the note out for a few seconds longer when she sang 'piece of you' in 'Join 'Em' nearly made me cum right there."

Nicky snort-laughed at Alex's statement, everyone feeling the same high from the show, leaving them all a bit giddy and giggly. Piper stared at Alex in wide-eyed surprise, never before seeing the dark-haired girl gush as she was over Fall Girl.

On the short walk to Alex's car, they continued to share their favorite moments from the show, talking excitedly over one another.

"I'm starving," Nicky proclaimed, reaching forward from her spot in the front seat to mess with the radio dial.

"Red's?" Alex posed as she pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yes!" Nicky and Lorna exclaimed.

"Piper?" Alex asked, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror. "You wanna go to Red's or do you need to get home?"

Piper felt her lips tug upwards in a small smile at being asked to tag along. "Fries sound amazing right now."

"Red's it is, then," Alex confirmed, turning her car in the direction of the diner. Nicky cranked the radio.

Shortly after, the girls were sliding into a corner booth, and Red was bringing them cokes. "How was the concert, girls?"

"Amazing, as always," Nicky answered.

"I'm glad," Red replied with a fond smile. "Are you ordering food?"

Nodding emphatically, the four spouted their orders to Red. Piper listened as her three companions ordered enough food to feed Piper's old clique for a week. She couldn't help her surprise over this, assuming that most teenage girls watched what they ate, similar to the way Jessica, Sarah, and Polly did.

"Piper?" Red asked.

"Just a small fry, please." Old habits die hard.

After Red left to cook their food, Nicky piped up, continuing their earlier conversation, "There was one moment, I swear, where Stella was singing directly to Chapman, here." She winked in Piper's direction.

Piper blushed. She had noticed that, too. There seemed to be a moment where the lead singer had made and held eye contact with her, but she had brushed it off, assuming she had been mistaken. In an entire crowd of people, why would Stella notice her? Since Nicky had noticed it, too, though, she wondered if maybe she hadn't imagined it. She'd never garnered interest from a woman before; surprisingly, the idea didn't bother her. Instead, she felt flatteredthat such a rock star might be interested in her. Not to mention the singer was gorgeous.

"What? Noooo," Alex denied, her eyebrows scrunching together and lips pursing slightly, obviously not buying it.

"She totally did," Lorna piped up. "I think you were actually at the bar when it happened."

Alex looked at Piper curiously. Piper just shrugged, but her reddened face confirmed Nicky and Lorna's assertions. Alex's features smoothed out into an expression Piper wasn't able to read.

Nicky said, "And we know for a fact she has a thing for blondes. Her last three girlfriends have been tall, thin, and blonde. Piper is one hundred percent her type." She grabbed her phone and began scrolling. When she found what she was looking for, she handed the phone to Piper. Instagram was open to Stella's page, and Piper could see that Nicky was right. Stella definitely had a thing for blondes.

Looking at the feed over Piper's shoulder, Alex hummed, and whether it was a hum of disbelief or a hum of agreement, Piper couldn't tell. Either way, the conversation now felt awkward.

Luckily, it was at that moment that Red returned with their food. Everyone dug in, having built up an appetite from the constant dancing and scream-singing along with the band. Piper munched on a fry and somewhat enviously watched Nicky begin to devour a double cheeseburger. She really should have ordered more than just fries.

Alex gazed at Piper thoughtfully. "We should order milkshakes!" she said with a large grin.

While Nicky and Lorna squabbled over whether chocolate or vanilla was the superior basic milkshake choice, Piper shot Alex a questioning look, thinking back to that day a few months ago when Alex had given Jessica that bad milkshake.

Alex shrugged at her and raised her eyebrows enticingly, "Chocolate?" she asked with a knowing smile, sliding out of the booth.

Piper hesitantly smiled in return, nodding once in affirmation. How the hell did she remember that?

Piper didn't know why Alex was being so nice to her all of a sudden; it felt like she had done a complete one-eighty. Maybe they truly were becoming friends; putting the past behind them. She reflected back over the past few hours and realized that she and Alex had shared a few moments during the concert; making eye contact when Stella or the band sounded particularly good or when they were sharing a laugh at the expense of some drunken college students dancing exuberantly and making fools of themselves. They had danced a little as a group and had bumped shoulders and brushed hands a few times.

Maybe the concert had served as a bonding experience.

Alex returned, sliding back into the booth and pushing three milkshakes across the table to their respective recipients and keeping one for herself.

Nicky slurped from her straw and spoke with her lips still wrapped around the tube of plastic, "So what did you think, Piper? You a Fall Girl fan now?"

Piper smiled as everyone turned their attention to her. "Well I'm no groupie like you three, but I really liked them. I'm gonna download their albums when I get home tonight." She put a spoonful of chocolate milkshake in her mouth.

"That way you can learn more of their stuff before the next concert!" Lorna chimed in.

Piper was hesitantly hopeful she'd be invited to join them the next time Fall Girl had a show. She blushed softly and said, "Exactly!"

…

Piper finished folding the sweater, then stacked it on top of the pile of clean, folded clothing. She was getting surprisingly good at folding laundry. It had become somewhat of a routine, since that day a few months ago, to help Diane fold laundry on Tuesdays. As she still wasn't really on speaking terms with her father, avoiding him as often as possible, and she didn't see her mother as often now that they didn't live under the same roof, it was nice for Piper to have some one-on-one time with a parental figure.

"I just don't know what to do," Piper lamented, grabbing another clean shirt from the laundry basket and beginning to fold it. "I want to spend Thanksgiving with Dad and Cal, but she'll be there, too." Piper didn't need to spell out to Diane who the "she" was that she was referring to, Diane was well-aware of Piper's dislike for Amber.

Diane paused, leaving a pair of jeans half-way folded, and turned a pouting Piper by the shoulders to face her. "Maybe you should give Amber a chance," she suggested softly.

Eyes widening in surprise, the teenager replied in disbelief, "What?! Really?"

Diane smiled in amusement. "Yes, really."

Piper just stared at her in mock-horror, over-exaggerating the effect to be comical. Diane rolled her eyes, and with a chuckle, tossed a shirt at Piper, which landed on her head and across her face. Piper removed the shirt, giggling. She attempted to smooth down her newly-tousled hair.

"Traitor."

Diane rolled her eyes at Piper's playful accusation, and then said seriously, "Look, kid, it's been, what? Two months now? I don't think she's going away anytime soon. And while your dad may have handled the entire situation badly-"

Piper cut in, "You think?"

Diane ignored the interruption, "You can't help who you fall in love with."

Piper didn't reply, letting that sink in. Did her dad love Amber? And if he did, didn't he deserve to be happy? Still, love isn't an excuse to cheat on your wife. Was it an excuse to break up a family? Was her dad's happiness more important than keeping their family together?

She didn't know the answers to those questions, but she knew she'd be thinking about them for a while. Either way, maybe her dad's affair, her parents' marriage, and their divorce weren't as straightforwardly black and white as she'd been thinking about them. Maybe everything was a little more complex than that.

Diane must have interpreted her silence negatively, because she followed up with, "What about spending Thanksgiving with your mom?"

"She's going to St. Lucia for the week with my grandparents."

"Well, I still think you should give Amber a chance and spend the holiday with your dad and brother, but if you really can't bear it, you're welcome to spend Thanksgiving with me and Alex."

…

In the end, Piper decided a whole day spent with her dad and Amber would be too much, so she compromised with herself. Spend Thanksgiving lunch with her dad, brother, and Amber, and then head over to Diane's for Thanksgiving dinner.

When she arrived at Diane's around 4pm, she was mentally exhausted.

"Well, how was it?" Diane asked, as Piper removed her coat and hung it on the coat rack by the front door of the apartment. The older woman was standing in the kitchen, talking over the breakfast bar which separated the two rooms. Alex was seated on a barstool there, and had turned her head to look at the blonde from over her shoulder.

Piper shrugged, stepping forward to take the empty barstool next to Alex. "I tried my best. I mean, she's fine. I just don't get it. But like you said, 'you can't help who you fall in love with,'" Piper eyes flitted to Alex subconsciously then back across the counter to Diane as she finished, "So… I'm trying."

"I bet your dad appreciates that," Diane leaned forward slightly to pat Piper's forearm. "Now, before I forget, I have something for you."

Alex groaned as her mom turned to shuffle through a stack of papers on the kitchen table. Piper gazed at her curiously, but Alex just rolled her eyes letting an amused smile settle on her lips.

"It's that picture of you two from Homecoming," she said, sliding the photo across the countertop. "I thought you might like to have a copy."

Piper stared down at the photograph and felt an immediate blush tinge her cheeks. In the picture, Alex smiled widely at the camera (too wide, as if a smile in and of itself could be sarcastic), one arm around Piper, who, instead of looking into the camera, was looking up at Alex, with a weird, soft smile on her face. Piper's stomach churned a little at the intimacy of the photo. It seemed too revealing, as if there was more to that look on Piper's face than just casual friendliness, and everyone could see it – adoration, maybe? Blatantly obvious to everyone except herself. She felt exposed.

She remembered how she had felt when Alex had slung her arm across her shoulders; the warmth in her belly, pleasant and surprising.

It had come as shock when she had realized the jealousy she felt toward the raven-haired girl; but this…. she couldn't possibly have feelings for Alex of all people… Could she? She recalled how her eyes were always drawn to the older girl, even in a crowd, like at the football game, Bayley's party, and Homecoming. If Alex was there, she always found her.

She thought about how she always noticed when Alex did something new to her hair or when she dressed in a way Piper particularly liked, and how worried she had been when Jessica had Alex cornered that day in the bathroom.

Was all of that because she had a crush on Alex?

Piper quickly shoved the photo into her purse. She was not going to have some sort of sexual awakening right here, right now in front of the object of her supposed affections. And while Piper felt as though her world had just shifted for what felt like the hundredth time in just a few months, Alex and Diane didn't seem to notice. In fact, the epiphany, while profound, had only taken moments to manifest, meaning that Piper had only been staring at the photo for a perfectly appropriate amount of time.

She cleared her throat and hoped her flushed cheeks weren't noticeable. "Thanks," she managed a small smile, voice barely wobbling.

Diane smiled at her, and Piper wondered if she knew. The older woman clapped her hands and said, "You girls want to play cards while we wait for the turkey to finish? It still has a few hours to go."

AN: Thank you all so much for your comments, suggestions, and ideas after the last chapter! I have a renewed inspiration for this story as well as some new plot points that I am so excited to explore!

I'd love to hear what you thought of this chapter, and am always open to hearing what you'd like to see happen in this story.

Peace,

-H.M.